I thought climate change was supposed to provide easier access to water?
Cape Town is at the bottom of Africa, but at 33.9° S it is roughly as far south as Tunisia and the Mediterranean, or Los Angeles, California are north. To pick other coastal places.
The climate is "Mediterranean" with rain in winter sweeping in over the sea from the west, and hot dry summers. (1)
But the area to the north of Cape Town, towards the equator is dryer, even along the coast. In fact it becomes harsh desert by the time you reach Namibia (2).
So it only takes a small shift of the weather systems away from the equator to impact the winter rainfall that reaches Cape Town.
1)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cape_Town#Climate
http://www.capewatersolutions.co.za/rainwater-harvesting/cap...
2)
http://www.grainsa.co.za/images/Articles/2012-08/reenval_fig...
Yes, we should probably power those plants from some renewable/sustainable source, but that's a different discussion for another day.
It's sad and crazy that this is still not changing. SA is a very sunny country.
Desalination is expensive in many ways. If it was a viable way of acquiring water (which it is in some places, like literal deserts) then these places would have already done it. Hence rising sea levels provide no additional access drinkable water.
"It's got what plants crave" is a line from his movie Idiocracy. It is directly relevant the discussion at hand, but it's also a zero-effort joke that contributes nothing new.
> low-effort jokes. It doesn't add information.
And then
> God forbid somebody makes a joke!
You're misreading what is being said.
That's why the explanation as if it was facetious gets the downvote.
Especially since it's not at all baseless. Outside of the subtropics rainfall is expected to increase. But drought length can also increase. It's complicated.